Triggers - Braintrust Docs

Triggers let an expert run automatically — on a schedule, on a repeating basis, or in response to calendar events — without you sending a message each time.

Finding the Triggers Panel

Triggers are accessed from the expert’s detail page via the More menu (...).

Open the More menu

On the expert’s detail page, click the ... button in the top-right corner of the expert card.

Expert detail page with the More menu button (three dots) highlighted in red

Click Triggers

In the dropdown that appears, click Triggers.

More menu dropdown open, showing Edit Expert, Manage Access, Configure Webhook, Triggers (highlighted), Remove, and Deprovision

Choose a tab

The Expert Automations modal opens. It has two tabs:

Standard Triggers — pre-built templates from the expert’s creator
Custom Triggers — schedules you define yourself

Standard Triggers vs Custom Triggers

	Standard Triggers	Custom Triggers
Defined by	Expert owner/editor (built into the expert blueprint)	You
Quantity	One per template	Multiple per expert
Types	Cron (time-based) or Calendar (event-based)	Recurring (cron) or One-time
Editing	Updates overwrite the single template trigger	Each schedule is managed independently

Use Standard Triggers when the expert already ships with the automation you need (a weekly report, a daily digest). Use Custom Triggers when you want to add your own schedule that wasn’t pre-built into the expert.

Standard Triggers
Custom Triggers

Standard Triggers are pre-built automation templates defined by the expert’s creator. Each expert ships with zero or more templates. Your job is to configure and enable them.There are two types of Standard Triggers:

Cron Triggers

A cron trigger fires on a repeating time-based schedule. Examples:

Every weekday at 9 AM — summarize the email inbox
Every Monday at 8 AM — generate a weekly status report
Every hour — check for new support tickets

Expert Automations modal on the Standard Triggers tab showing cron templates

Select the Trigger Template

On the Standard Triggers tab, templates appear as cards. Each card shows the template name, type badge (CRON), and current status (NOT CONFIGURED, ENABLED, or DISABLED). Click the one you want to configure.

Set the Schedule

The schedule builder opens in Visual mode by default.Visual mode options:

Frequency: Every Hour, Every Day, Every Week, Every Month
At time: time field in 24-hour format
On days: day-of-week picker (for weekly schedules)
PREVIEW row shows the human-readable result (e.g., Every Mon at 09:00 (America/New_York))

To enter a raw cron expression, click the Cron toggle at the top of the schedule section to switch modes.Common cron expressions:

Expression	Meaning
`0 9 * * 1-5`	Every weekday at 9:00 AM
`0 8 * * 1`	Every Monday at 8:00 AM
`0 /2 * *`	Every 2 hours
`30 17 * * *`	Every day at 5:30 PM
`0 9 1 * *`	First day of every month at 9:00 AM

Set the Timezone

Select your timezone from the dropdown. The schedule fires at the specified time in your selected timezone.

If you do not set a timezone, the schedule defaults to UTC. A “9 AM” trigger in UTC may fire at 4 AM or 5 AM in US Eastern time.

Write the Execution Prompt

Enter what the expert should do when the trigger fires.Example:

“Check my Gmail inbox for unread emails from the last 24 hours. Summarize the most important ones and list any action items.”

The prompt must be at least 10 characters long.

Choose Delivery Mode

Direct Message (DM): The expert sends output to your private DM.
Space: The expert posts to a specific Google Chat Space. Select the Space from the dropdown.

Save and Enable

Click Save Automation. The trigger is created in an enabled state and fires at the next scheduled time.

Calendar Triggers

A calendar trigger watches your Google Calendar and activates the expert when events match your criteria — unlike cron triggers which run on a fixed clock, these are event-driven.Examples:

Before any meeting with more than 5 attendees — prepare a briefing document
After any event tagged “Client Call” — draft follow-up notes
When a new event is created — check for scheduling conflicts

Select a Calendar Template

On the Standard Triggers tab, select a template with the CALENDAR type badge.

Connect Google Calendar

If this is your first calendar trigger, you will need to authorize access:

Click Connect next to the Google Calendar status.
A Google OAuth window opens — sign in and grant access.
Once connected, the status changes to Connected.

The calendar connection must stay active for triggers to work. If you see a “Not connected” status, click Connect to re-authorize.

Select a Calendar

Choose which calendar to watch. The default is your Primary Calendar, but you can select any calendar you have access to.

Write the Execution Prompt

Enter the instructions the expert should follow when an event triggers it.Example:

“For the upcoming meeting, research the attendees on LinkedIn and prepare a one-page briefing with their roles and recent activity.”

Be specific about which events should trigger action and which should be ignored.

Choose Delivery Mode

Select Direct Message or a specific Space.

Save and Enable

Click Save Automation. The trigger starts watching your calendar immediately.

How Calendar Triggers Decide to Act

When a new or updated event appears on your calendar, the expert evaluates it and makes one of three decisions:

Decision	What Happens
Ignore	The event does not match the trigger criteria. No action taken.
Schedule	The event matches; the expert runs before the event starts (default: 10 minutes before).
Execute Now	The event matches; the expert acts immediately.

Policy Prompt

The Policy Prompt is set by the expert creator (not the user who hires). It is the system prompt for a lightweight LLM evaluation step that runs before the expert acts.What actually happens: When a new or updated calendar event arrives, the app passes the event details to an LLM using your Policy Prompt as the system prompt. The LLM returns a JSON decision. The app parses that JSON — not the expert, not a tool call — to decide whether and when to fire the expert.This is not an execution prompt. At this step, no tools are available and the expert is not running yet. The only output is a JSON object.Required JSON output structureYour Policy Prompt must instruct the LLM to return valid JSON in this structure. If the LLM returns non-JSON text, parsing fails and that event defaults to ignore (logged server-side).

{
  "action": "schedule",
  "reason": "external customer meeting",
  "leadTimeMinutes": 15,
  "executeAtIso": "2026-04-20T14:45:00Z"
}

Field	Required	Values / Notes
`action`	Yes	`"ignore"` — skip the event. `"schedule"` — run the expert before the event. `"execute_now"` — run immediately.
`reason`	No	Brief explanation, logged for debugging.
`leadTimeMinutes`	No	Minutes before event start to run the expert. Only applies when `action` is `"schedule"`. Default: 10.
`executeAtIso`	No	ISO 8601 timestamp for an explicit run time. Only applies when `action` is `"schedule"`. Overrides `leadTimeMinutes`.

The event details passed to the LLM include: event title, start time, description, attendees, organizer, location, and meeting link.If no Policy Prompt is set, a built-in default prompt is used. It decides based on the agent’s name and description and is conservative — it will ignore events when uncertain.Writing a Policy PromptYour prompt replaces the entire default system prompt. You must include the JSON output requirement yourself, otherwise the LLM may return prose and that event will default to ignore.

You are evaluating calendar events for a meeting prep expert.

Act on events that are:
- External client calls
- Meetings with more than 2 attendees

Ignore: internal standups, 1-on-1s, lunch blocks, all-day events.

For matching events use "schedule" with 15 minutes lead time.

Return ONLY valid JSON — no markdown, no explanation outside the JSON:
{
  "action": "ignore" | "schedule" | "execute_now",
  "reason": "brief explanation",
  "leadTimeMinutes": 15
}

If your Policy Prompt does not instruct the LLM to return JSON, the response cannot be parsed and the event defaults to ignore — no user-facing error is shown.

Calendar Subscription Renewal

Google Calendar subscriptions expire after 7 days. Braintrust automatically renews them before expiry via a daily background job.If automatic renewal fails, go to the Triggers panel, click Connect to re-authorize, then save the trigger again.Use the Cleanup Calendar button if you have stale subscriptions — this removes all existing Google Calendar subscriptions so you can start fresh.

Managing Standard Triggers

Enable / Disable — Use the toggle next to the trigger.Edit — Click the trigger to update its schedule, prompt, timezone, or delivery mode. Click Update to save.Delete — Click the Delete button on the trigger card to remove it permanently.

Deleting a standard trigger is permanent. Use the enable/disable toggle if you only want to pause it.

Custom Triggers are schedules you create yourself for any hired expert. You name them, choose the timing, write the prompt, and manage them independently.

Expert Automations modal showing the Custom Triggers tab with schedule cards

Each schedule card shows: name, type badge (RECURRING or ONE-TIME), status (ACTIVE or INACTIVE), human-readable schedule, delivery destination, and prompt preview.

Creating a Custom Trigger

There are two ways — via chat (fastest) or via the UI form (most control). Both methods produce the same result, and triggers created via chat appear in the Custom Triggers tab immediately.

Via Chat

Ask the expert directly in your DM or Space:

“Remind me every Monday at 9 AM to summarize last week’s activity.”

“Remind me next Friday at 3 PM to pull the weekly sales report.”

The expert confirms the details and creates the schedule. You can also manage existing triggers via chat:

“Disable the Monday standup schedule.”

“Update my weekly report schedule to run at 10 AM instead.”

“Delete the Friday sales report schedule.”

All chat changes are reflected in the Custom Triggers tab in real time.

Via the UI — Recurring Schedule

A recurring schedule runs on a repeating cron-based pattern.

Custom Triggers tab with New Schedule button highlighted

New Schedule form with Recurring type selected

Enter a Schedule Name

Type a name between 5 and 50 characters (e.g., Daily Standup Summary, Weekly Report).

Select Recurring

Click Recurring under Schedule Type. Subtitle: “Runs on a cron schedule.”

Set the Schedule

The schedule builder opens in Visual mode. To enter a raw cron expression, click the Cron toggle.Visual mode options:

Frequency: Every Hour, Every Day, Every Week, Every Month
At time: 24-hour time field
On days: day-of-week picker (weekly schedules)
PREVIEW row shows the human-readable result

Common cron expressions:

Expression	Meaning
`0 9 * * 1-5`	Every weekday at 9:00 AM
`0 8 * * 1`	Every Monday at 8:00 AM
`0 /2 * *`	Every 2 hours
`30 17 * * *`	Every day at 5:30 PM
`0 9 1 * *`	First day of every month at 9:00 AM

Set the Timezone

Enter an IANA timezone string (e.g., America/New_York, Europe/London, Asia/Calcutta).

Write the Execution Prompt

Enter the instructions the expert should follow each time it fires. Minimum 10 characters.Example:

“Summarize new activity from the past 24 hours and post the highlights.”

Set Delivery Mode

Direct Message — output sent to your private DM
Space — output posted to a Google Chat Space (select from dropdown)

Click Create Schedule

Click Create Schedule. The schedule becomes active immediately.

Via the UI — One-Time Schedule

A one-time schedule runs once at a specific date and time, then stops.

New Schedule form with One-time type selected

Enter a Schedule Name

Type a name between 5 and 50 characters.

Select One-time

Click One-time. Subtitle: “Runs once at a specific time.”

Set the Run At date and time

Use the date/time picker to select when the expert should run. Must be at least 5 minutes in the future.

One-time schedules use your browser’s local timezone automatically. The timezone field is read-only and pre-filled.

Write the Execution Prompt

Enter instructions for this single run. Minimum 10 characters.

Set Delivery Mode

Choose Direct Message or Space.

Click Create Schedule

Click Create Schedule. The schedule is queued and fires once at the selected time.

Managing Custom Triggers

Enable / Disable

Use the Enable or Disable button on any schedule card — or ask via chat.

Custom Triggers list with Enable button highlighted

An INACTIVE schedule never fires until re-enabled. Useful for pausing seasonal automations without losing the configuration.

Edit

Click Edit on a schedule card — or ask the expert via chat — to update any field. Click Update Schedule to save.

Delete

Click the trash icon to permanently delete a schedule (confirm required) — or ask the expert via chat. This cannot be undone.

Use Disable instead of Delete if you only want to pause a schedule temporarily.

Filter the List

Filter	Options
Spaces	Filter by delivery destination (DM or specific space)
Type	Recurring, One-time, or both
Status	Active, Inactive, or both

Limits

Limit	Value
Max active schedules per scope (DM or Space)	5
Min interval between recurring schedules in same scope	15 minutes
One-time schedule must be at least	5 minutes in the future
Schedule name length	5–50 characters
Execution prompt minimum length	10 characters

If you exceed 5 active schedules for a given delivery destination, the form will block saving until you disable or delete an existing schedule for that scope.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
Trigger is not firing	Check that the trigger is Enabled. Verify the schedule and timezone.
Trigger fires at the wrong time	Double-check the timezone setting. Cron expressions use 24-hour time.
Expert output is empty or unhelpful	Make the execution prompt more specific — include what data to check and how to format output.
Calendar trigger does not fire	Check that Google Calendar is connected (green status). Try disconnecting and reconnecting.
Expert acts on the wrong calendar events	Add explicit criteria to your prompt (e.g., “only for meetings with external attendees”).
”Not connected” calendar status	The OAuth token expired. Click Connect to re-authorize.

Talking to Your Expert

Tips for writing effective prompts for both triggers and live conversations.

Edit Expert Settings

Customize the expert’s behavior, tools, and configuration.

​Finding the Triggers Panel

​Standard Triggers vs Custom Triggers

​Cron Triggers

​Calendar Triggers

​How Calendar Triggers Decide to Act

​Policy Prompt

​Calendar Subscription Renewal

​Managing Standard Triggers

​Creating a Custom Trigger

​Via Chat

​Via the UI — Recurring Schedule

​Via the UI — One-Time Schedule

​Managing Custom Triggers

​Enable / Disable

​Edit

​Delete

​Filter the List

​Limits

​Troubleshooting

Talking to Your Expert

Edit Expert Settings

Finding the Triggers Panel

Standard Triggers vs Custom Triggers

Cron Triggers

Calendar Triggers

How Calendar Triggers Decide to Act

Policy Prompt

Calendar Subscription Renewal

Managing Standard Triggers

Creating a Custom Trigger

Via Chat

Via the UI — Recurring Schedule

Via the UI — One-Time Schedule

Managing Custom Triggers

Enable / Disable

Edit

Delete

Filter the List

Limits

Troubleshooting